Backbeat: The second and fourth beats in music written in even time (i.e. 2/4, 4/4 etc), in 3/4 time or other more complex time signatures; the last beat of the bar.
Backing track (also known as backing rhythm): Recorded instrumental track which forms the basis of the accompaniment for vocals or lead instruments.
Backline: The amplifiers used for individual rhythm instruments on stage; they are usually placed behind the players.
Baffles (also known as gobos): Studio screen - usually on wheels - which are used to reduce leakage . They can have either sound proofed or reflecting surfaces, to suit different ambiences .
Band pass filter: An electronic filter which limits the effect of frequencies either side of a desired frequency range.
Baroque: Originally meaning 'bizarre' or 'highly ornate', this term is novv used to refer to an era in European music from 1 650 A D to 1 7 50 A D when counterpoint and harmony were of great importance. Nowadays a 'Baroque arrangement' may be either similar to Bach or Handel in style or heavily contrapuntal, as in Quincy Jones' arrangements or counterpoint.
Bins: Term for bass speakers on a PA rig; large, acoustically designed speaker cabinets.
Blowing: see Jamming.
Bluegrass: A type of country music from the south of the United States, usually played without any percussion instruments. All instruments in this type of music are string, and include the fiddle (violin), guitar and the obligatory five-stringed banjo.
Board: see console.
Bop: (also known as Be-bop): Mid-'40s to mid-'50s style of jazz. Epitomized by such legendary figures as Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and the younger Miles Davis. Generally performed by small groups, this jazz
form stretched the boundaries of the 20th century rhythmic music more than any other music of the time.
Bottleneck guitar: (also known as slide guitar ): A technique originally used by the old blues guitarists who would tune the guitar to an open chord (usually D major or C major), place the neck of a bottle over one finger of the left hand, and slide this over the frets while playing to produce a crude lapsteel or Hawaiian guitar effect. Now the bottleneck itself is usually a steel or glass tube. Bottom: The lower end of the audio range with regard to response or bass presence.
Bouncing: (also known as ping pang): A technique used in multi-track recording. Extra tracks are obtained by sending two or more pre-recorded tracks to be recorded onto one spare track.
Brass: The term for those instruments which are made of brass and played with a metal tube mouthpiece, such as the trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba. Term.often used to describe the horn section of a group which frequently includes saxophonesnot technically brass instruments, because they have a reed mouthpiece, although they are usually made of brass.
Break: An instrumental passage in a song, for example, 'horn break' or Guitar break'. Term used by music businessmen to make an artiste successful and wellknown in a given territory, normally achieved with a hit record.

Bridge: That part of a stringed instrument which stops the sounding length of the strings. It is placed somewhere between the nut and the tailpiece at the point where most accurate tuning is found. The middle of a song, or the link passage between, say, a verse and chorus
Bug: Jargon for contact mike or pickup used on acoustic guitars, violins, saxophones etc.
Bus/Buss: Jargon for the routing of an input signal to one or more output channels. The bus control Is used to assign an instrument to a particular track; for example, a harmonica coming into a desk on, input 1 may be bussed to track 4 on the tape recorder.
Busking: See Jamming.

Calibration: The process of lining up tape recorders or any equipment in terms of frequency response and level.
Chart: Published ranking of records in terms of sales. Jargon for written music part, or chord symbols (-) as opposed to printed music.
Chops: Jazz vernacular for skill, as in "That horn player has great chops."
Chord symbols: Symbols in letter form which are a short-hand method of indicating the chords which are to determine the harmonic structure of a piece. G7 for example, means a G major triad with a minor 7th (dominant 7th), the notes being G. B. D and F natural. Chord symbols are used mostly in rhythm section music, for the piano, guitar and bass.
Chorus: Main body of a choir; Refrain of song, (3) Jargon for sequence of chords in an instrumental piece, as in, "Take two choruses"; (4) Electronic device which creates the effects of more than one sound from a single source by combining a short delay usually between 5 and 30 milliseconds, with slight deviations in pitch.
Chromatic scale: A scale taking in all 12 semi-tones of the octave.
Clavinet: A stringed keyboard instrument with a bright cutting sound, similar to the harpsichord but with a hammer rather than a plucking action.
Compressor: An electronic device for reducing the range of dynamics of an audio signal.
Clef: A sign often found at the beginning of each line of written music, and used to fix the position of middle C on the staff . The common forms are the treble and the bass clef. To avoid using too many ledger lines, the clefs are often adjusted to suit the range of particular instruments. In general the higher the range of the instrument, the lower the position of middle C on the staff. Hence the alto clef, where middle C is the centre line, is used for the viola because the middle of its range is from around middle C to the octave above. The range of the cello is lower, so the tenor clef where middle C is higher on the staff is used. Conversely, the violin's middle range is from G above middle C to an octave above that, so middle C is placed below the treble staff.
Click track: A rhythmic guide track consisting of a series of clicks (usually semi-quavers) used to assist in time-keeping during recording. Clicks recorded in order to start or cue synthesizers sequences or electronic drums. The click can be used to trigger a number of different sequences recorded at different times while still keeping them all in synchronization.
Concept album: An album with an overall thread running through it, which may be musical, lyrical or thematic. Examples are 'Desperado' by the Eagles and 'War of the Worlds' by Jeff Wayne.
Concert pitch: The internationally agreed tuning of a particular note. This is determined by the frequency of its sound waves - which is measured in cycles per second or Hertz (Hz). Concert A above middle C is 440 Hz.
Console (also known as board, desk, mixing console): The piece of equipment through which inputs and outputs are routed either to or from a tape recorder and with which adjustments in tone, level and balance are made.
Course: A part of strings struck together and considered as one, a characteristic of certain stringed instruments, notably the mandolin (each pair in unison) and the 1 2-stringed guitar (each pair may be in unison but the lower four pairs of strings are usually in octaves).
Cover (also known as cover version): Subsequent recorded version of an original song; there are, for example, over 1,000 covers of the Lennon-McCartney song 'Yesterday'.
Crescendo: Growing in force; getting louder.
Crossover: (l)An electronic splitting device used between amplifiers and speakers to divide the sound into two frequency bands. The 'highs' will be sent to the horns and the 'lows' to the bin . Term used to denote that an artiste's style is a blend of two main streams of music. For example, Afro-Cuban crossover is soul music mixed with West Indian and Latin American rhythms.
Cue (also as foldback, talkback): Part of the circuitry of the mixing console which enables (a) the engineer in the control room and the musicians in the studio to communicate via headphones; (b) previously recorded material to be fed to the musicians so that they can play in sync when doing over dubs ; (c) direct injection instruments to be monitored via headphones while recording is in progress.
Cut: Making a master disc from which finished records can be pressed. So called because the master tape sounds are transferred onto a lacquered disc by a cutting machine which uses a needle to draw the sound patterns into the acetate.
Cutaway: The spaces left when portions of the electric guitar body have been cut away to allow better access to the frets. A guitar with a chunk removed both above and below the neck is known as a 'double cutaway'.

Da Capo: Term used in written music, meaning back to the beginning (literally, "frond the heady.
D/A converter: A device which converts digital binary number back into continuous analogue wave forms, see also A/D converter.
dbx: The trademark of a popular noise reduction system used with multitrack tape machines.
DDL: See Digital delay line.
Decay: The dying away of a note. In synthesizer's part of the ADSR.
Decay time: The time (in seconds) which it takes for a sound to decay to a level 60 decibels below its original level. It is normally known as RT 60.
Decibel (dB): The unit of sound measurement. O dB is taken to be the threshold of hearing, while 130 dB is the threshold of pain. A normal speaking voice is about 65-70 dB.

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